John Benson (left) and Gavin Phillips.

UW ECE Graduate Students Win Awards At Bioengineering Symposium

April 14, 2008 - John Benson, Ph.D. EE candidate and Gavin Philips, MSEE candidate were recognized for their research at the 45th annual Rocky Mountain Bioengineering Symposium held at Copper Mountain, Colorado April 4-6.  Benson earned 3rd place honors in the poster category for his work on developing a sensor based on the vision system of the common housefly.  Philips took second place honors for his written paper on next generation wheelchair concepts.  Both students are part of the research team led by Drs. Cameron Wright and Steven Barrett.  Other EE students presenting papers at the conference included Leslie Popp, Ph.D. candidate and MSEE candidate Michael Stephens.  A total of nine engineering students from UW participated in the conference.  Dr. Jeff Anderson, ECE Assistant Lecturer, served as the program chair for this year’s symposium.

The RMBS is a nonprofit organization of university educators and industry personnel with the purpose of providing a forum to share recent advances in bioengineering.  The RMBS has been held annually since 1964 at sites in and around the Rocky Mountain area.  Although originally started as a regional conference, the RMBS enjoys participation from bioengineering researchers from around the U.S. and the world.  Special emphasis is placed on student participation in presenting technical papers.   UW will host the 2010 conference with Steven Barrett and Cameron Wright serving as conference program chairs.